Daintree,
Richard (1831 - 1878)

Born at Hemingford Abbots, Huntingdonshire, England on 13th December 1831,
died at Beckenham, Kent, on 25th June 1878.

Richard Daintree was educated at Christ's College, Cambridge. In 1852 he
joined the gold rush in Victoria and in 1851-55 worked as an assistant geologist
in the Victorian Geological Survey. He returned to England to study assaying
and in August 1857 he was back in Melbourne working as Victorian Geologist
until January 1865.

In 1865 Daintree took up land in north Queensland. In 1869 he was appointed
Government Geologist for North Queensland. He was appointed in 1872 as Queensland
Agent-General in London. Daintree became ill and resigned from his post in
1876 and left to convalesce in the south of France. In 1878 he returned to
England and died later that year.

Daintree River was named in his honour. Richard Daintree was a fine petrologist
and explorer. Queensland Herbarium records, show that he was collecting plants
in November 1869 at Rockhampton and central Queensland ranges. He was a collector
of the type of an Acacia named after him, i.e. Acacia daintreeana
F. Muell.

Source: Hall, N and 1965 Australian Encyclopedia. Published in Port Curtis District Flora and Early Botanists
by G.N. Batianoff and H.A. Dillewaard (1988), Botany
Branch, Queensland Herbarium.